How to customize right click behavior?

Hey guys,

I have been using XFCE for the past few months and overall it is great.

The one thing that drives me crazy is the right click behavior.

In my Fedora XCFE system a right click often brings up a context menu. The problem is that releasing the mouse button in the menu selects the current item. IMHO this behavior is insane and I much perform the Microsoft Windows style interaction where selection of the menu item only occurs with the left button.

Is there a way to change my configuration to match the MS windows style behavior? I googled a bit and did not find anything.

Re: How to customize right click behavior?

I'm using Xfce 4.10 in Fedora (actually Kororaa) 17 and have never noticed the behaviour you mentioned. Probalby because I just the left button. I can only get the menu to appear after I release the right button so can't reproduce the exact behaviour you mentioned. I do notice that either button can be used to select an item in the menu.

Re: How to customize right click behavior?

On MS windows if you right press on something the context menu does not appear until you release the right click. This is logical because until you release it is not a "click" of any kind.

With XFCE it seems the context menus appear on the right button downward press and before the right button is actually clicked. The result of this behavior is that the menu appears and then when the user releases the right button the item in the menu that happens to be under the cursor gets selected.

I much prefer the MS windows interaction and think this is a bug in the way XFCE works relative to the general convention for display of context specific menus on a right click (i.e. it should not display until the click occurs).

For example, press the right mouse button down on the application menu but do not release the button. On other systems like MS Windows the menu would not appear until the user releases the button.

Re: How to customize right click behavior?

This is a desired behavior. Most menu systems (including these on MS Windows) work this way - it saves you clicks when you navigate through sub-menus. And there are users that expecting it to stay this way.

One exception is when the same mouse button is used also for D&D - then, yes, showing a menu has to be deferred to a mouse release event.

The context menu on the desktop is now shown on mouse release for exactly this reason (although I much more preferred the old way).

Re: How to customize right click behavior?

I don't think a MS Windows behaviour is 'expected'. And from your description of how it works it's actually less flexible.

If you don't want to accidentally select anything, right-click and release then click on your selection choice. One can also do as you say by right-clicking, not releasing and releasing on a selection to open it.That's more choices. I didn't even know about this choice of not releasing the right-click to select that you complain about because I was not 'trained' on Windows.Just to give you another perspective.

I think your issue is a matter of habit plus maybe you can tweak something in the mouse tab from Settings>Acessibility and see if you have a behaviour that settles you better.

Re: How to customize right click behavior?

secipolla wrote:

I think your issue is a matter of habit plus maybe you can tweak something in the mouse tab from Settings>Acessibility and see if you have a behaviour that settles you better.

Yes, I think it is a style thing and not an actual bug. People can debate the way it *should* work but a Windows user will expect it to work the Windows way and as such it would be nice if XFCE included this as an option. Overall I like XFCE but years of muscle memory causes me to perform a right "click" to bring up the context menu rather then performing a right "press" to bring up the menu.

I looked in Setting>Acessibility but have not found anything that allows the behavior to be adjusted.

Re: How to customize right click behavior?

I've just checked it. Xfce works exactly like Windows (2003, at least). That is: it needs a full click to show a menu on the desktop, and a mouse press to show a menu elsewhere. There were requests on bugzilla to make the menu on the desktop show up on mouse press, by the way.

Re: How to customize right click behavior?

I am running XFCE version 4.8 as part of the Fedora Spin.

On my copy of Windows 7 all context menus require a right mouse click to show. This is true in Windows and all apps running under windows. The Fedora system uses right press but I have never seen an example where Windows uses just the press to bring up the context menu. I don't have Windows 2003 for testing.

Re: How to customize right click behavior?

Quick report of what I found: - On MS Windows *context* menus are indeed usually triggered by mouse click. But that is not a rule, some applications (including major ones, like Powerpoint 2007 or Excel 2007) show context menus when mouse button is pressed. - On Linux, both Gtk and Qt applications show context menus when mouse button is pressed. - In Xfce 4.10, context menu (on the desktop only) is triggered by mouse click, all(?) other by mouse press. - On both Windows and Linux menus attached to menu bars or buttons are triggered by mouse press.

I prefer the Linux way (fewer clicks) but I can see how it can lead to erroneous actions. Especially with modern high-dpi pointing devices. Either way, we are not really in a position of changing Gtk, Qt and all applications that use these libraries. We could potentially do it for Xfce context menus (as a desktop-wide accessibility option?) but since Xfce doesn't come with its own silo of applications that could be confusing.

Re: How to customize right click behavior?

I think it is not an XFCE concern.

It sounds like it is a Gtk issue and as such it could be that they have or can implement an option so the user can select their preferred mode of interaction. Now that I know that it is Gtk I will look at the options they provide for configuration.